The main focus of this 2nd year design studio was concerned with the creation of spacial continuity under a distinct utilization of analog and digital design methodology.

During the complete course length intensive intermediate lectures were held, that helped to build up a strong theoretical fundament upon the context of “Continuity”. Therefore we looked at the major figures from various disciplines that possibly could be influential and fertilize the class with ideas for their own projects. In this realm we were looking into Stephan Barr “Experiments in Topology” to get a general overview of the terminology from a mathematical sight. This ex-course was especially valuable to learn about the distinct differences between objects that are observed from a geometrical or from a topological point view. At the same time needed vocabulary was build up early on, that could be directly transferred as we started with the computational work later on. Next to Barr we also investigated the topic from differing secondary perspectives, taking a close look into the work of Federick Kiesler, Ben Van Berkel, Anish Kapoor, Frei Otto, Softlab and many others.

In the execution of first small scale experimental models, we were using wireframe constructions to create soap bubble minimal surface configurations. The main focus was to investigate in which circumstances, meaning the predefined geometrical wireframes, stable continual spacial configurations are emerging. In contrary to the extraordinary and well documented work of theSFB 231,we were therefore not so much interested in the creation of minimal surfaces, but intensively in the creation of spaces. Within the first task, it was asked for the transcription of one model, that was observed within the soap bubble experiments, that should be materialized using textile materials.

Within the second task we were transferring the knowledge generated during the analog experiments into digital models. For this consecutive step we were using the Rhino Grasshopper Plug-In “Kangoroo” to create mesh relaxations that were as close as possible to its analog original designed during the previous step. The exercise was therefore used, to learn and master the complex software and programming environment, with the objective to acquire the skill-set and routine needed to achieve exact results.

In the last individual step the task was, to use the obtained knowledge gained trough the previous analog and digital experiments to design a custom spacial installation for our MediaLab. For the installation there were no predominant constraints, e.g where to be located or where the specific anchor points would have to be placed. The final accomplishment was to build a 1:50 scale model of the MediaLab including the final installation design.